2023 Lineup / Montgomery Theater Stage

The Bad Plus are the ultimate originals. For the past two decades they have played with spirit and adventure, making their own rules with a bold sense of creativity and a refusal to conform to convention. The Bad Plus has won critical acclaim and a legion of fans worldwide with their unique sound and flair for live performance.

Guggenheim grant-awarded Billy Childs is a piano prodigy with a gift for composition, with an astounding 16 Grammy Award nominations and 5 Grammy Award wins. Widely regarded as one of the foremost American composers of fusion jazz and chamber music, he is a technical wizard who continues to innovate harmonically and rhythmically.

VibraSÓN brings traditional sounds of Latin music together with modern rhythms, soulful vocals and adventurous solos. The members of VibraSÓN have a richness and depth of experience in the many forms of Latin jazz, highlighted in this Montgomery Theater Stage set.

Luca Stricagnoli is a rare acoustic guitarist with music videos exceeding 100 million views online and bookings in every corner of the globe. Using up to five guitars in the same piece, Luca continually leaves his audiences in awe and wondering what’s next.

Halie Loren is an international, award-winning jazz singer and songwriter. Raised in Alaska and currently based in Oregon, she brings a fresh and original perspective to time-honored musical paths, channeling her innate understanding of connectedness across musical boundaries to forge bonds with diverse audiences in North America, Asia, and Europe.

An unequivocal musical prodigy, singer/saxophonist/songwriter and bandleader Grace Kelly has rocked the jazz world with sold-out concerts, 14 acclaimed albums, a performance at the Hollywood Bowl and a stint in the house band for Late Show with Stephen Colbert—all before reaching her mid-twenties.

SJZ Collective, composed of some of the Bay Area’s most prominent jazz voices, join forces with Ukrainian trumpeter Yakiv Tsvietinskyi to pay tribute to Freddie Hubbard. Since all band members double as composers and arrangers, count on a night of thoughtfully re-imagined material from the catalog of a boundary-breaking modern jazz heavyweight gone too soon.

Ronit Widmann-Levy combines her opera background with piano from William Susman and the classical guitar of Yuri Liberzon to produce a spine-tingling performance. Having performed at renowned festivals and symphonies the world over, they appear at Summer Fest to present a Spanish recital of traditional Ladino romansa pieces written by Manuel de Falla, Rodrigo and Lorca.

Shayna Steele’s new album Gold Dust was created in the wake of the pandemic, a breakthrough 20 years in the making. In 10 tracks, she absorbs the darkness of isolation and illuminates the air with her brilliant voice and emotion–setting a new gold standard for jazz and soul.